Meandering Mental Musings

Thursday, July 14, 2016

I’m a writer. Not the best, not the worst. I always wanted
to have the influence of a Thomas Paine, a Harriet Beecher Stowe, or maybe a George Orwell or an Ayn Rand. I wanted to “leave
my mark” and somehow make the world a better place. Alas, I am agray-haired retiree in
small town
Oklahoma. I wrote a novel three years ago that has helped a few people, or so
they have told me. The second book, a follow-up, is still under construction. I didn’t realize it would be such a
struggle. But I have a lot to say; a message bigger than one book can contain.

I may be writing this because of the death of several of my writer friends
in recent months. My heart ached because they left unfinished manuscripts. And,
recently my own health has faced a few challenges. So, as I lay my anemic self
on my sofa I feel like I am circling the drain. I have been contemplating my life and the “marks” I
have made. My personal review has left me feeling wanting---even though I've achieved a couple of things.

I found myself offering up a prayer---to God, the Universe,
to whatever Higher Power is out there—I know there is one, I’ve had so many prayers answered—"Show me how I can make a positive
difference in the world before I am out of here.”

Well stocked with Sonic ice and air-popped popcorn, I snuggled deeper
on the sofa in a marathon switch-off between Candy Crush and Netflix. I also
made the decision not to take one of my prescribed “medications for life” that I suspected might
be contributing to my demise.

I plugged my tablet in to recharge and turned on Netflix. I
needed to watch something,
anything, that didn’t seem like a waste. I needed something to challenge my thinking; something to distract me from my exhaustion and pain.Something to motivate me
to get off my ass and back to writing.

Over the course of two days these movies and documentaries
changed my perspective of the world. Some made me laugh, others made me angry,
but together they gave me renewed hope. I wondered if these films would have the same
impact on others. There was only one way to find out: I could write about it and offer my discovery
to the world and see if others would feel the birth of hope that I do. That would be an answer to my prayer and a real
miracle.

(Note: Netflix offers one month free to new subscribers. I
receive no compensation from Netflix. If, on the other hand, this article goes
viral and results in a massive unexplained new member sign-up and they track me
down and they would like to bless me with compensation, I would not turn it
down. You might want to search these shows in advance and put them on your Watch
List.)

I did take some breaks. Friends and family dropped by, I
had to go to the bathroom, answer the phone, let the dogs out, re-supply ice
and popcorn. I also did some tidying-up around the house. I didn’t want my
family to find me dead in a messy house.

I will do my best to list these films in the order I
watched them, but other than the first show, I’m not sure it really matters.

1.Requiem for the
American Dream (1 hr. 13 min) If you don’t know who Noam Chomsky is, think
brilliant college professor. A linguist, writer, and anti-war dissident of the
1960’s and
1970’s. He appeals to logical thinkers and will have conspiracy theorists nodding their
heads
with approval.

3.PlantPure Nation(1hr 35 min) One of
those, “We’re going to tell you this for your own good” documentaries.
However, this one has actual video footage showing how state government (in this case Kentucky)
can hijack information the general public needs to know. After watching PlantPure,
I re-watched the Noam Chomsky film to make sure I wasn’t dreaming about what
his documentary explained. There is info at the end of the movie if you want
more information.

4.The Widowmaker (1 hr 36 min) This film may have saved my
life. I watched this prior to my marathon session. I put it on this list because it needs to be seen by EVERY adult in the U.S.
who feels like crap as well as those who don't. My family doctor pooh-poohed the info it gives. I paid $99
cash for the medical test (not covered by Medicare without doctor’s order)
suggested in this film. Based on the results, a cardiologist who was going to
place a stent in one of my legs decided we needed to address the blockages in my
heart first. After the stents were placed in my heart and aorta I could
walk more than one-hundred feet without pain for the first time in five years. (I can
walk over a mile now and the pounds I gained due to immobility are melting like
an ice cube on a summer day in Oklahoma.)

5.The Great Invisible (1 hr 32 min) I already
said
I live in Oklahoma, land of cattle and big oil. This film provides information
about the BP oil spill not shared in mainstream news reports. Big oil is big
oil.

6.GMO OMG (1 hr 30 min) I had no
idea. Well, maybe a little. But this? Why? On my list of send an email to my
senator and representative.

7.Rolling Papers (1 hr 19 min) The Denver Post became the first major
media outlet to appoint a marijuana editor. This film covers the challenges of
the emerging cannabis industry and addresses national political impacts. In my
youth I was an outraged young Republican secretly envious of the hippie
life-style. Burning my bra seemed like it would be so liberating, but I decided that without the padding my gender might be questioned. And as far as cannabis
is concerned, the only regret I have is that Oklahoma isn’t as progressive as
Colorado. Maybe I would feel better if I took a vacation.

8.Dirty Wars (1 hr 27 min) I almost
didn’t watch this one. See, ignorance can be bliss. But low on my Google
newsfeed this last week was a blip of an article about NATO extending support
for the Afghanistan war through 2020. Investigative reporter, Jeremy Scahill, discloses where the borders end. Really? Time for another group of emails.
I might have to walk. How far IS Washington? How many billion is the U.S.
kicking in? And they want to cut Social Security?

9.Gore Vidal -- The United States of Amnesia (l hr 23 min) My parents
used to love his debates with William F. Buckley. My parents were close to my
age when they died. I now understand why they liked the guy. Heavens, he knew
the inside scoop on D.C. and must have been considered outrageous in his time. This led me to watch Requiem of the American
Dream a third time. And then in quick succession—

10.Money for Nothing:
A Look Inside the Federal Reserve (1 hr 44 min) I listened
to these people and thought of Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays. There’s a name to look
up on Wikipedia.

11.Cartel Land (1 hr 40 min) I am
thankful I don’t live in a border state.

12.Wal-Mart The High
Cost of the Low Price (1hr 37 min.) If you have missed this one, now is the time to watch it.

As I close this article, I want to thank a friend for bringing me prenatal vitamins (they contain some iron). Between those and
stopping my “for the rest of your life” medicine, I feel much better today. My doctor’s office
called saying they phoned a different prescription in tothe localWal-Mart Pharmacy. I ask
them to transfer all my prescriptions to my neighborhood drugstore. (The WalMart
brand glucose test strips an monitors are still the cheapest to be had in the U.S. If
everyone with diabetes that is on Medicare used them it would save the
government millions a month. And since we are the ones footing the bill, it
would be the logical thing to do.)

I'd love to receive feedback, to learn if after you watch these films you have a renewed sense of hope. Grassroots activism
in this day and age is at the tip of your fingers via a phone call, or email.
If that doesn’t work there is always the voting booth, or we could all join
together and go for a walk.

Friday, May 30, 2014

When I was setting up my book give-away on GoodReads I never gave much consideration to the cost factor of sending a book to someone in another country. If anything, I was smitten with the idea of having people in other English speaking nations read my novel. After all, the egotistical dreamer in me imagined the label “international best-seller,” to precede the book’s title one day in the future. (I like to practice positive thinking.)

So, after noting that give-away books were to be actual physical copies and not an e-book version, the next choice I had to make was, to which countries other than the U.S. was I willing to ship? With a confident smile on my face I chose Canada and United Kingdom.

My give-away was for three books and lasted a month. Seven hundred fifty-eight people signed up to win. Hopefully, a good percentage of those people read the back blurb and want to read my book. That’s advertising in my opinion. I purchase my books at wholesale cost. How much could postage possibly be, anyway?

The right size bubble pack mailers from the post office cost $1.39 each. Not bad for the convenience. One book went to North Dakota. Even though it is the beginning of summer, I envisioned the recipient snuggling down in a comfy chair with my book, sipping from a mug of hot cocoa and occasionally looking out their window as a blanket of snow covered the pastoral country-side.

My mind evoked much the same image, but with the addition of huge cedar trees looming nearby when I discovered the second book recipient lived in Alberta, Canada. The third vision differed slightly; a heavy fog rising from the ground in the midst of a cold steady rain and sheep huddled together on the patchwork of rolling hills because the third winner was from Great Britain. (I'm a James Herriot fan.)

My book (just shy of 400 pages) would be shipping from Oklahoma.

The cost to ship to North Dakota was $3.17. Postage to Canada, $13.75, caused my eyes to open wide. I swallowed hard when I discovered that to mail the small package “across the pond” was a staggering $20.45. The latter two packages also had to have customs forms filled out. Grand total $40.55.

Hmm. So how can I best word this? A Community of Butterflies: Chrysalis, Barbara Shoff’s breakout novel, a stalker-thriller, is now received by international audiences.

Sounds good to me.

Considering my budget, I think I will limit future contest give-aways to the continental U.S.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

A few weeks ago
I decided to be more consistent with my blog posts. Blog consistency, I am told
by the “experts,” helps build your “platform” and your “brand.”

My brand is me.
A no frills, tell it like I experience it, no candy coating, we are all in this
together, root for the underdog perspective person.

The “experts”
say one’s platform and brand are essential to becoming a “successful” writer.
With that comment I suggest we eat a smidgen of salt.

I am further
told by those with varying degrees of “success” that one’s platform must
consist, at the very least, of various interconnected social media
applications, such as: a private website,
a blog, pages on GoodReads, Facebook, Pinterest, Linked-in, Tumblr and Twitter.
Don’t forget AboutMe and Instagram. These various parts of your platform should
work together in harmony (which I understand means having a button that links
to the other sites with a single mouse click) and, when available, transports
newly created material added to one site to all the others simultaneously, and
includes timed released scheduled materials so one can achieve a broad reach in
shouting to the world about new products of your personal brand, and, most
importantly, a way to collect the names and emails of all those who hear your
shouts because you need to prove you have a customer base and have a way to let
customers know when your next product (book) is released so you can achieve
more sales, which means greater success. The creation of more books gives you
more products to offer. Take a breath.

If you are over
a certain age, think about all of this as advertising on ABC, CBS, and NBC,
with spots airing during the evening and morning news, Sunday ads in local
newspapers, billboard displays on the busiest streets and radio ads on the most
popular stations.

Of course, as I
have expressed in the past, this all depends on one’s definition of success. In
this particular blog article I am addressing financial success.

To be honest,
instead of consistency, I will write articles that are of importance to me and
address issues other writers may be pondering and struggling with, rather than
simply spewing up anything for the sake of filling a page on a daily or weekly
basis. I prefer to spend more time
writing my next book. So, know this - if you subscribe to what I write, I won’t
be frequently clogging up your email unless I discover or question something
important to you and me as writers. Or, if I have a new release. (Not something
I do on a weekly basis.)

According to the
dictionary, and expert is defined as a person having a high degree of skill or
knowledge of a certain subject.

So, for the sake
of this article, it would make sense that an expert is a person who has made a
ton of money writing and selling her or his book. This means s/he has obtained
hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of reviews. OR has really studied the
subject matter.

BECAUSE, as all would-be-successful-writers
know, lots of good REVIEWS DRIVE SALES. We know this because we have heard it
from the “experts.”

This subject
must be important. Consider my search on Google researching for this article.
Using the search words “how to get reviews on Amazon” returned “about
941,000,000 results in 0.49 seconds.”

So, I would say
I am not the only person pondering the issue of the elusive review.

I have read many
of these articles (no, not all of them, goose) and discovered that, of the
941,000,000 results, a large percentage of articles are willing to share the
“secret” for the price of becoming a member of a successful writers club, or a
writer is selling a book with detailed information answering this question. Other links offer to sell you reviews, the
cost of which breaks down on one popular site to a few pennies shy of $35 per
review.

Give me a break.

At that rate, if
you are selling books on Amazon in the “sweet spot” (again, identified by
experts) of between $2.99 and $3.99 for an e-book, as a writer you are going to
be making between $2.50 and $3.25/book. An indie writer without an agent
receives 70% of the sales price. So, a writer would need to sell about 10 books
for every review s/he receives.

This is not
exactly cost effective if it is true that most books don’t sell with speed or
consistency until there are at least 100 reviews in the first place.

This is enough
to make any writer feel like a dog chasing its own tail.

One answer that
I am told works well is to give your book away for a brief period. Yes, I was sucked in to this way of thinking.
I come from the “try it and see what happens” school. I learn by experience. I
am sharing my experiences for free through this blog. One day when I am rich
and famous I will charge for my lecture and secret sharing abilities.

One writer told
me she received a plethora of reviews following such a promotion.

I recently read
that an author receives about 1 review per 1000 free downloads. My friend’s
freebie promotion last year over Mother’s Day resulted in about 35,000
downloads, after she sent announcements a week in advance to 25 different
places that promote free downloads. (Mother’s Day is one of the biggest sale
times for e-readers and, according to some, makes the perfect time to offer the
free book promotion.)

I banked on
getting the word out about my free book offer via a 35 count blog tour that
started on Mother’s Day and the two days following. The cost of such a tour is
less than $50.

For the three
days, I gave away a whopping, or in the eyes of some, a paltry 1057 free
downloads. Hmm. If the ratio of numbers
are right on downloads to reviews, I’ll get ONE.

As
self-justification, I didn’t know about getting the word out to the freebie
promotional sites until I was in the middle of packing for a convention and
booking future author sales/signing opportunities.

At the Oklahoma
Writers Federation Inc. convention I attended I received mixed messages from
the experts.

One successful
author told us never to solicit or promote our books via Facebook and
GoodReads. It is not considered proper author etiquette. Another highly successful author explains she
does announce her new books on Facebook, but mostly she engages with her fans.

But, darn it, I
need fans. To get fans I need reviews. I have been very clear to those who
follow me on any social media that I appreciate reviews. Not exactly the same
as asking, right? More like a really, really big hint. (I want to sincerely
thank those who have already advised me that a review is on the way.)

I have also
learned that what worked last year via social media doesn't mean it’s going to
work this year.

For instance,
Amazon has changed things. At one time, downloads of free books in a promotion
counted toward overall book rankings. Not so anymore. Free books are now
counted separately from paid downloads. There are so many authors offering free
books at any given time, now it is like having a grocery store full of taste
test tables. Everyone knows that if you go to the store hungry, you are going
to spend more money buying food. However, if at the end of every aisle someone
offers something to eat, a consumer might get full before s/he gets halfway
through the store.

A study in
Publisher’s Review several years ago has remained pretty consistent even in
this computer age, "... an author’s reputation impacts 52% of sales, personal
recommendations (word of mouth advertising) encourages 49% of sales, book
reviews account for 37%, a good back blurb counts for 22% and advertising
impacts at about 14%."

Currently, as a
writer, I am unknown to the masses so I lack a reputation.Therefore, I find
myself asking my friends and those who have read and like my books to please recommend them to their friends (as well as any stranger who passes within a foot of them any time of the day and anyplace they may be). If you notice I am deliberately not asking for a reviews in this article. I want to be maintain professional author etiquette. (The last statement is not to be construed in any way to mean I do not want, need or appreciate every review I receive. I honestly, truly do.) Also, I want to thank those who assisted me with wording for my back blurb.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Any published writer knows the
challenge of getting a book in front of readers who will actually spend money to
purchase it can be daunting. Most of your contacts are family members or other writers and starving artists on a budget themselves. Unless your writing targets other writers with miracle "get-published-and-create
a million-followers-on-social-media-overnight” books that sell, you may be screwed.

Successful authors make money basically two ways, writing and marketing good books and
getting paid to tell how they did it. For this reason, they are too often singing to
the choir by establishing a following limited mostly to other writers. To really become
successful, an author needs to expand his or her reach beyond other writers. WE NEED
TO FIND READERS.

GoodReads gives you the opportunity but with a much greater reach to readers and enough contact with
writers to help an author play the “you-scratch-my-back-game” effectively. To quote GoodReads:

"With over 300 million page views and 45 million unique visitors a month, GoodReads offers integrated advertising and book launch packages designed to target and reach readers."

Note: I AM the All Things Computer and Social Media
Dummie Queen.

I OWN THE CROWN!

Therefore, if I can do this so can you.

1. Go to Goodreads.com and sign-up for a membership. It is FREE. Give them what they
ask for: email, your name and a password. I don’t care what you have been told,
write your darn password down, make sure it’s not “password." Try using your first
pet’s name and your birth date.

2. Fill out as much of your profile as you are comfortable letting
other people know. Be advised:

There are TWO profile opportunities on GoodReads.

One
if you are a reader and another if you are also an author. This threw me for some time. Start
with the basic reader profile. Use a good photograph. Take a hundred selfies if
you need to, but get a good picture. If you are a professional, get a
professional picture taken. This is time to invest in yourself. YOU are your main
product, even if you think it is your book(s). Besides, it is tax deductible. If you want others to take you seriously, get serious.

Now as a
reader, look for your book. That’s right. Pretend you don’t know you but you
heard your name and that you wrote a good book. GoodReads may ask for your ISBN
number or a .jpg. If your book is available on Amazon, chances are your book
will magically appear. Click on your book to confirm that is the one you are
wanting. Was that easy or what?

3. Back to your profile. In the upper right corner you have the
opportunity to edit your author profile. By clicking on this choice, your basic reader
profile expands and you can add all sorts of fantastic stuff. Add it. If you
have a blog, open another search window and go to your blog page, copy the
address in the address bar, take it back GoodReads and paste it into the little
window. Make sure it has the www and the http:// (it only needs to have one set)
and because GoodReads may automatically add that in, if you get the message “invalid
address," remove the extras. (I told you I own the crown.)

4. Next, go to the forums at GoodReads. Don't post anything, just read and study what is available. Search for topics
and see what comes up. Read “Author Etiquette.” OMG, I'm a professional and I had no idea! Try searching your state, you may find forums
specific to your geographic location. Want reviews? Search "author reviews." You
will find forums where writers are looking for someone to exchange reviews with
them. Offer to scratch someone’s
back and get yours scratched.

5. Now for the best “free” opportunity I have found yet, (I am still new
as an author to GoodReads. It has taken me a bit to figure it all out.) Click under explore and find the book giveaway page. Read about it. To
participate you agree to give away a physical book and cover the postage to
wherever it is going. You will identify your genre’, book length, a blurb about
the book. Again, you will add your book, however, this is so cool, if it is
already in the system you just have to add your ISBN and it pops up. You will
select the length of time of the promotional in drop-down calendars and the total
number of books you are giving away.

I chose a month so I would have free advertising
for a month that people are seeing. These are people who love books. These are
readers. People who buy books. And, though not guaranteed, many give reviews because Goodreads, in
their wisdom, conduct the “random” drawing for winners and clearly state winners are weighted toward those who have provided reviews in the past. GoodReads will tell you as an author who won and where to send the book! That
is why I chose to give away three books and limited my shipping locations. Hopefully I will get at least one
review. And, in addition, your book's ranking goes up on GoodReads every time your book
is added to someone’s shelf as a "want to read."

6. Now before you leave your GoodRead giveaway page, copy the stuff in the box that looks
like gibberish and talks about the giveaway promotional. Open a new search window that has your blog
settings if you have a blog, go to your
layout page on your blog. Click on add a gadget where you want to add a new one. A new window with different selections for gadgets will open. Now find the gadget that says html/java
and paste in what you just copied at GoodReads. Save and preview. Voila!

You
can imagine my amazement when a day after I posted my giveaway promotion, (yesterday)
forty-five, that’s 45, FORTY-FIVE people added A Community of Butterflies:Chrysalis to their shelf as a "want to read."

Go to Youtube and watch the video Helping Readers Discover Your books with Patrick Browne, one of the head honchos at GoodReads. He explains this so well. Do yourself a favor spend the twelve minutes and watch it! I can't figure out how to get the video to work here.

Oh,
also if you are reading this directly from my original blog site at meanderingmentalmusings.blogspot.com and not from my author's blog on GoodReads which is now directly linked to my blog, (one blog does it all) you will see
an icon widget on the right of the blog. Please sign-up for my giveaway on GoodReads and
don’t forget to add my book to your want-to-read bookshelf. If you have any questions about how to set up your author profile, GoodReads
has great staff who could even help this Dummie Queen figure out how to succeed. But their instructions are the easiest I have ever used. I love followers (I don’t post to my blog very much, so your email won’t be getting
clogged with my blogs) and comments are always welcome.

Try GoodReads whether you are a reader an author or both. And lets admit it, the best authors are avid readers.